Justification:
This species is only known from two locations in Panama (Panama Bay and the Gulf of Montijo), and has an extent of occurrence of less than 20,000 km². Major threats to this restricted range, shallow water species are severe habitat destruction from extensive coastal development and pollution. It is listed as Vulnerable under Criterion B.

This species is endemic to the Central Pacific, and is thought to be distributed from El Salvador to Panama. However, all known records are from the Bay of Panama and the Gulf of Montijo in Panama (Collette and Russo 1981), where given its shallow water habitat, it has an extent of occurrence of less than 20,000 km². Its distribution outside of these areas needs to be confirmed.